Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) clients display warning messages about out-of-date virus definitions. The SEP client is utilizing the latest definitions provided by the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager (SEPM). The SEPM may or may not have the latest definitions available from the Symantec LiveUpdate servers.
A pop-up warning message titled: "Old Virus Definition File" appears.
The default message displayed is: "Your virus definitions are currently out of date. Contact your system administrator on how to update them."
The SEP client interface displays an error message stating: "Virus and Spyware Protection definitions are out of date".
This issue occurs when definitions on the client computer are older than the number of days configured in the Virus and Spyware Protection Policy for alerts about outdated definitions.
If the definitions on the SEP client and SEPM server are less than 24 hours old, the Virus and Spyware Protection Policy is likely configured to warn after definitions are one (1) day out of date. This configuration does not follow best practices as new definitions are not made available immediately at midnight.
This issue can be resolved by ensuring that the virus definition policy used by affected clients provides enough time before warning about outdated definitions. The configured time should be no lower than the amount of time it takes all clients in the environment to receive updated definitions plus one day.
To modify the virus definition policy's notification settings:
Note: When the out-of-date definition condition is triggered, you may see the notification message pop up multiple times on the SEP client. This notification continues to pop up until the definitions are current (as defined by the SEPM policy).
To avoid seeing this message more than once on the client, on the pop-up notification window, click Don't remind me again until after the next update, and then click Close.